Alumni News

University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston has offered KEVIN MELODY (IDM '17) a postdoctoral fellowship in a BSL-4 research group headed by Thomas Geisbert. Due to the security and proficiency needed to perform the work, Kevin will undergo extensive training before beginning high-containment pathogen-related research.

MEGAN KAVANAUGH (BCHS ’08) became a principal research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute in 2017. Her research portfolio has focused on contraceptive use and service delivery, unintended pregnancy and abortion. In her most recent studies, she has been tracking national trends in contraceptive use, examining the consequences of unintended pregnancy and understanding the impact of travel on women seeking abortions.

COLLETTE NCUBE (BCHS ’14) is a future faculty fellow in the Department of Health Sciences and the Institute of Urban Health Research and Practice at Northeastern University. Ncube’s research focuses on determinants of racial/ethnic disparities in adverse birth and pregnancy outcomes and later life cardiovascular/metabolic disorders, with particular focus on lifecourse and intergenerational factors.

CHONGYI WEI (BCHS '09) recently moved from the University of California, San Francisco to join the faculty at the Rutgers School of Public Health. His primary research focuses on the epidemiology and prevention of HIV/AIDS among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Asia and in the U.S. He is interested in creating innovative strategies to increase HIV testing uptake among MSM and improve access to care and treatment among HIV-infected MSM.

CHRISTINA WILDS (BCHS '06) serves as senior program officer of the Highmark Foundation. Prior to joining Highmark, Wilds served as program evaluator in Highmark Inc.'s division of community affairs, where she was responsible for all phases of program evaluation. Before joining Highmark, she worked for a world-class medical center where she served in various fundraising positions.

Kent State College of Public Health faculty member, TINA BHARGAVA (BCHS, '12) is the coordinator for the Prevention and Control of Diseases course, which is taught online. She is interested in improving online teaching methods. Her research interests include health behavior change and the cognitive limitations that may affect success with behavior change. Her current work focuses on re-envisioning the standard for student success.

MCSILVER INSTITUTE – This podcast series brings together thought leaders from the public and private sectors to analyze stereotypes and dispel myths concerning Black boys and men, while providing facts and best practices for those working with these often marginalized populations. MIKE LINDSEY (HPM ’01) says, “with increased media and attention, more folks are attuned to racial issues and the long lasting impact of discrimination.”

PITT MAGAZINE - Two of Pitt’s featured “change agents” are Pitt Public Health grads. SEUNG WOOK LEE (BIOS '79, '82) and HYUN KYUNG MOON (EPI '86) were pioneers and trailblazers in their fields whose careers were made possible by degrees from Pitt. “Everything I’ve done is possible because of Pitt,” says Moon. “It gave me the credentials to be in the room."

THE PITT NEWS – Nearly 3,000 Pennsylvanians died of opioid overdoses in 2015, according to the Public Health Dynamic's Laboratory. But researchers like MICHAEL MALLON (BCHS '13), the project coordinator for Pitt Public Health's Opioid Initiatives, are working to change that statistic. "Pennsylvania is one state that is being hit harder than others. the number of overdoses almost doubles every eight or nine years," Mallon said.

TRIB LIVE - Analyzing motor-vehicle-related hospital admissions, in-person license renewal laws and vision testing were found to dramatically reduce the number of motor vehicle accidents by drivers with dementia, according to BCHS' STEVEN ALBERT and YLL AGIMI (EPI '12) as published in Neurology.

Alumna MICHELE M. BUZZELI (BCHS ’15) is teaching about global health at Northampton Community College’s Monroe Campus in Tannersville, Pennsylvania, using her coursework at Pitt Public Health to cover the syllabus. She will also teach a section of College Success, a required first semester course for incoming students, helping them navigate the college environment.

Alumna SUSAN M. MANZI was honored with the 2016 Richard E. Deitrick Humanity in Medicine Award during the Celebration of Excellence Awards Gala , Saturday, March 4, 2017, at Heinz Field. Established in 2012, the award honors a physician who has improved the lives of patients by caring for them with integrity, honesty, and respect of their human dignity, and serves as a role model for other physicians. Manzi is chair of the Department of Medici...

BECKER'S HOSPITAL REVIEW - HPM alumnus and faculty member DEREK C. ANGUS, director of the Clinical Research, Investigation and Systems Modeling of Acute Illness laboratory at Pitt’s School of Medicine, has developed an evidence-based approach for managing post-hospitalization sepsis. “We need to focus not only on saving the patient’s life, but on ensuring the patient will have the best possible quality of life after leaving the hospital.”

CENTRAL VALLEY BUSINESS TIMES - The analysis of California death rates was conducted at the county level using data from the Mortality and Population Data System (MPDS) at Pitt Public Health. Data from biostatisticians JEANINE BUCHANICH, SHANNON WOOLLEY, and MICHAEL LANN include ICD codes for underlying causes of death for nearly all U.S. deaths since 1950.

Alumnus DIEGO CHAVES-GNECCO (MMPH ’00), now associate professor at Pitt’s School of Medicine and founding director of the program SALUD Para Niños at UPMC’s Children’s Hospital, received the F. Edwards Rushton CATCH Award at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition. Named in honor of F. Edwards Rushton Sr., this award honors pediatricians who collaborate within their communities to increase children’s access to ...

CAPE MAY COUNTY HERALD — SHIRLENE TOLBERT MOTEN, MD, MPH ('93), has been appointed medical director for outpatient physician practice at Cape Regional Physicians Associates, a medical group of primary care physicians and specialists serving 13 locations in southern New Jersey. Dr. Moten earned her MPH from the Graduate School of Public Health and her medical degree from New Jersey Medical School.

CBS PITTSBURGH - Alumnus DAVID SALCIDO (EPI ’08), resuscitation specialist and assistant professor in Pitt’s Department of Emergency Medicine, is hoping his app can help save lives in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. The free app, called Pulse Point, is connected to the Allegheny County 911 system, so that those who know CPR to get to those in need before paramedics arrive. Listen to the interview and learn more about the app.

PITTSBURGH MAGAZINE - Alumna NATALIE BULGER (HPM ’12) left Pittsburgh for college, but she wasn’t away from home for long. “My mom likes to make a joke that Pittsburgh makes this big sucking noise—that when you leave, it sucks you back in so quickly.” Pittsburgh, she adds, is a good place for someone to “strike out on their own and make a career for themselves.” And that’s exactly what she did. She began her career at The Children’s Institute of ...

90.5 WESA - “The two main criticisms of the Affordable Care Act marketplace were that not enough plans were participating and that premiums were too high, and this policy change … will worsen both of those problems,” said HPM’s JULIE DONOHUE. CALEB WALLACE, an HPM alum and senior director of health policy and assistant counsel at UPMC Health Plan, said the company aims to maintain stability for consumers. “This change in particular … is a little ...

A new way to collect and organize data could be the answer to tackling the years-long opioid overdose epidemic. The University of Pittsburgh’s Program Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU) is working with Pennsylvania officials to standardize death data from overdose victims. The purpose of the project is to provide more detailed reporting in real-time that could help show where the problem areas are. A large number of staffers are Pitt Public Heal...

Congratulations to alumnus CHARLES JOHN SCHLEUPNER (IDM ’68), who has been appointed to the Dean’s Council on Advancement for the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. The council is a committee of volunteers created to advance the stature of the medical school by providing guidance, assistance, advocacy, and philanthropic investment in support of the school’s strategic objectives.

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MANAGED CARE - An article by alumna INMACULADA (INMA) HERNANDEZ (HPM ’16) discusses the impact of the outcomes-based pricing arrangements proposed by Amgen on the pricing of PCSK9 inhibitor therapy, and provides recommendations for payers on the design of outcomes-based contracts. She is an assistant professor at Pitt’s School of Pharmacy. Her research explores the intersection of pharmaceutical health services and outcomes re...

CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL - After a natioinwide search, NC-based Carolinas HealthCare System has tapped alumnus ANTHONY DEFURIO (HADM ’89) to serve as executive vice president and CFO, effective October 2017. Carolinas recently announced it would merge with Chapel Hill-based UNC Health Care, forming one of the nation’s largest hospital networks. Leading up to this new position, DeFurio was senior vice president and CFO at University of Colorado ...

PITTSBURGH COURIER - Nearly half of all African American adults have some form of cardiovascular disease, and African Americans have nearly twice the risk for a first-ever stroke than Caucasians, resulting in a much higher death rate from stroke. Alumnus MARIO BROWNE (BCHS ’05), Pitt’s director of health sciences diversity and a spokesperson for the American Heart Association, talks about how those diseases can be prevented.

BECKER’S HOSPITAL REVIEW - Pitt Public Health alumnus LOU SHAPIRO (HPM ’84), CEO of the New York based Hospital for Special Surgery, talks about how he plans to stay competitive in an increasingly consolidated healthcare landscape and what it means to grow better instead of bigger.

TCTMD - Two new analyses call into question the cost-effectiveness of adding the PCSK9 inhibitor evolocumab to statin therapy in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Pitt Public Health alumna INMACULADA HERNANDEZ (HPM ’16) noted that the conclusions of the two papers are the same: the drug’s cost “is way above what we usually considered cost-effective in this country.”

THE MORNING CALL -- After over 30 years at the helm of St. Luke's University Health Network, RICHARD A. ANDERSON (HPM '71) is among a handful of the longest-serving top health care executives nationally. With Anderson at the helm, St. Luke's has grown from a single hospital with an annual budget of $73 million to a diversified health care organization with more than $1 billion in revenues and 9,000 employees, making it the second-biggest employer...

Celebrating 20 years of service, BRIDGING THE GAPS PITTSBURGH has focused on promoting health in underserved communities while training future health and social service professionals. More than 350 community health interns have collaborated with 58 community partners to provide over 10,255 days of service in the greater Pittsburgh area.

MICHELE BUZZELLI (BCHS ’15) is putting her MPH to work this fall teaching courses in global health at the Northampton Community College’s Monroe Campus in Tannersville, PA. Buzzelli will also teach a required first-semester course for incoming students entitled College Success which helps students navigate the college environment.

PITTSBURGH BUSINESS TIMES - Alumna LAURA GRIFFIN (HPM ’13) has been honored by Pittsburgh Business Times as a 2017 30 Under 30 award winner. Her contributions as director of network nursing operations at Allegheny Health Network has brought her to the attention of management.

NEW YORK TIMES - This doctoral alum is amazing! CHRIS TAYLOR (EPI '10), who was inducted into the Pitt Public Health Delta Omega Honor Society chapter in May 2017, won best in show in the amateur division at the American Pie Council's championship in June in Orlando, Florida. His winner beat 205 other entries with a recipe inspired in part by a Take5 candy bar, one of his favorites.

KRISTINA WINT (BCHS ’17) will begin a new position in the School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine with Dr. Lisa Schlar. She will coordinate interconception care for mothers using well baby visits to promote mother’s health.

It was announced today that alumna JANICE SCULLY DORMAN (HUGEN ’81, EPI ’83) is the recipient of the Pitt School of Nursing 2017 Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Award for tenured faculty. Dorman has taught classes at that school (and at Pitt Public Health) for 30 years, focusing primarily on molecular epidemiology and genetics.

Alumna BETSY JOHNS (MMPH ‘99) recently joined the Stormont Vail Health medical team and will practice as a family medicine physician at Cotton O’Neil Corporate View. She received her medical degree at the Hahnemann University School of Medicine in Philadelphia in 1994. She completed a residency training in family practice at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and a faculty development fellowship at University of Pittsburgh Medic...

We hear that new doctoral alumna CHELSEA PALLATINO (BCHS ’17) will begin a position as a postdoc researcher with Magee Women’s Research Institute in July. She’ll be studying unintended pregnancy, Hep C prevalence, and intimate partner violence among opioid-dependent mothers.

KVOA NEWS 4 - New prediction tools to identify patients at risk of inappropriate prescription opioid use, while allowing safe administration of legitimate pain management are being developed by alumna WEI-HSUAN JENNY LO-CIGANIC (BIOST '10, EPI '05), now an assistant professor with the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy. Her newly-funded work builds on research she completed as a postdoctoral associate at Pitt's HEALTH POLICY INSTITUTE.

EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY - Alumnus WILL BROUGHTON (BCHS '14) is coordinator for the Office of Health Access in the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University as well as future project coordinator for an apples-to-apples project to standardize the methodology and synchronize the assessment process for regional community health needs assessment in eastern North Carolina. He will be facilitating the day-to-day implementation efforts. He sa...

PITTSBURGH TODAY - “PM2.5 is probably the chief concern for the region, mainly because of its contribution from a source as big as the Clairton plant has an effect over a fairly large area,” said EOH associate prof JAMES FABISIAK.... “Everything that’s a risk factor for bad health is showing up high in that area,” said LUANN BRINK, Allegheny County Health Department deputy director and chief epidemiologist (as well as EPI alum and assistant prof)...

Kudos to (photo front, left to right) alumna PATRICIA NOWALK (EPI '81, ’93) and BCHS faculty MARY HAWK, ED RICCI, and (back) RICHARD ZIMMERMAN, who received the Immunization Publication Excellence Award presented during the National Adult Influenza Immunization Summit, May 10, 2017, in Atlanta, Georgia. The award was in recognition of their work on the Four Pillars Practice Transformations Program for adult influenza immunization.

Alumna STEPHANIE JOHNSON (EPI '16) has been accepted into the CDC/CSTE Applied Epidemiology Fellowship. The mission of this national fellowship-training program is to meet the nation's ongoing need for applied epidemiology workforce capacity in state and local health departments. Johnson will be serving at the Puerto Rico Department of Health and the CDC-Dengue branch in San Juan, starting this summer.

Diane Howard will honored at the 2017 Alumni Awards Ceremony for her contributions to the school. She is associate professor and director of student development in the Department of Health Systems Management (HSM) at Rush University Medical Center, where she teaches courses in managed care, health care in America, and professionalism. She serves on the HSM career services, chairman’s council, curriculum, faculty appointments and promotions, recr...

Eric Hulsey is manager of behavioral health analytics in the Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) Office of Data Analysis, Research and Evaluation. In this role, he is responsible for working with key partners to evaluate behavioral health services administered by DHS and find practical applications for research, as well as for managing all research activities, implementation, and reporting efforts; designing and developing quanti...

Mary Ganguli is professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and professor of epidemiology at Pitt Public Health. Her research focuses on the epidemiology of late-life mental disorders, particularly neurocognitive disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. She is the principal investigator of several National Institute on Aging (NIA)-funded, population-based investigations in the area of dementia and Al...

Tammy Haley is director of nursing and radiological sciences, associate professor of nursing, and coordinator of the RN-BSN program in the Division of Biological and Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, where she has been a member of the nursing faculty since 2003. She teaches Physical Examination and Health Promotion and Community Health Nursing at the BSN level and teaches at all levels of the ASN program, in both the c...

Laura B. Gieraltowski is serving as a lieutenant commander with the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) for which she is a epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Emerging and Infectious Zoonotic Diseases, Division of the Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases’ Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch (ORPB). She regularly leads teams of public health professiona...

Congratulations to alumnus JASON FLATT (BCHS '13), recipient of a KL2 award for career development (3-yrs of salary support to pursue multidisciplinary clinical research with training and mentoring) from University of California - San Francisco. Flatt is an assistant professor at the School of Nursing's Institute for Health and Aging, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. His current research explores risk and protective factors for Alzhe...